Elements Of A Good PowerPoint Presentation

If you have ever led a meeting, orchestrated a conference call or had to make a sales pitch, you likely had to come up with a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation to make your ideas really come to life. In today’s business world, ideas sketched on a napkin are no good and hardly up to par. Furthermore, handwritten note cards and printed pie charts are just archaic and shouldn't even be considered. Your presentation will make or break your idea, and you've got to make it look as good as possible.

PowerPoint is the hands-down choice for pitching your ideas, products and services. Your first line of thought should be to include information that caters specifically to the audience you will be presenting you. For example, a presentation to the CFO would focus on financial metrics whereas the VP of marketing may prefer more attention on sales numbers and market research. Once you have your basic research in place, follow our guidelines to make the most of the opportunity given to you and make sure you implement these elements of a good PowerPoint presentation.

Use an outline format

One of the biggest complaints about presentations is that the presenter/presentation designer simply reads the slide show, word-for-word. PowerPoint presentations are meant to function as outlines and guides that supplement your presentation rather than a transcript of your pitch. If a person simply needed to read the slide show word for word, then you could save everyone (including yourself) a bunch of time by simply e-mailing the document and skipping the meeting. Of course, people are not likely to read a 5,000-word slide show dissertation.

The presentation should logically flow and work with your spoken presentation. Use the presentation to reinforce key points, encourage discussion and leave your listeners with a tangible take-away item. Use keywords and catch phrases on your slides that can easily be jotted down and remembered by your audience. Plus, with less on the overhead to read and look at, they are more likely to focus on you and what you have to say about the corresponding slides.

Be clean and efficient

We know that lots of people think a bright rainbow background, floating circles and magically appearing text are just fantastic. Yes, they are cool (in a geeky kind of business-world way), but they are not for office-related PowerPoint presentations. Bright colors can make the presentation hard to read and discourage your audience from giving it merit. Fancy animation and movement can also confuse the reader, particularly if it's unclear if something is supposed to automatically show up. And the futuristic techniques can also quickly become the most memorable part of your presentation, rather than your message. In a worst-case scenario, you may make an error in the animation sequence and that can really be a show-stopper. Additionally, going the extra mile to add animation just takes longer — both to build and to conduct and control in the meeting. Be respectful of people’s time and show others your gifts of efficiency and clarity instead of your hidden artsy flare.